Don't let it drift

If you're not already planning your holidays for next Christmas and New Year you might find the best trips booked up, says Sophie Butler.

12:01AM GMT 11 Jan 2006

You might be glad it's all over for another year, but if you're hoping to spend next Christmas or New Year 2007 in the sun, you should really start thinking about it now.

Long-haul flights to the most desirable destinations sell out months before December; so do the nicest Caribbean hotels, the best African safaris and the most popular hideaways in the Maldives.

Villas large enough for house parties are snapped up early in the year, as are some ski resorts.

Below are the bookings that can't wait, plus those that might not be quite so urgent but which should still be booked well in advance. And if you prefer to leave your decisions until the last minute, we tell you what you can expect to find.

Main airlines release seats 10 or 11 months in advance (bookings for British Airways flights open 355 days before departure, for example). So flights around next Christmas have already gone on sale. As demand is high, the cheapest fares often sell out within days of becoming available.

If you wait too long, you might not be able to get a seat at all. For the busiest couple of weeks in the run-up to Christmas, flights to Australia or New Zealand often sell out by June, and to South Africa by July; as British Airways, Virgin and SAA are the only three direct carriers to the last destination, they always fill up first.

You have more time if you are flying to the Far and Middle East, where reasonable fares for the Christmas period should still be available in July, and for the Caribbean in August or September. But if a destination is featured in the press or is heavily advertised, it will book up sooner (currently this is true of Dubai). By October, availability will be extremely tight and Christmas fares will be higher for all long-haul destinations.

Last minuteYou might find flights if you are willing to take a stopover en route and can be flexible with your dates. Don't be put off going indirect, as the connections are often quick (change in Abu Dhabi for Dubai or Johannesburg for Cape Town or the US for New Zealand).

Properties that are suitable for large house parties go quickly, and bookings for Christmas and especially New Year are sometimes taken years in advance.

The Landmark Trust (01628 825920; www.landmarktrust.org.uk) accepts bookings up to three years ahead. Warren de Long, a director of Blandings (020 7947 3290; www.blandings.co.uk), which specialises in upmarket self-catering and serviced properties mostly in the UK, estimates that 60 per cent of his company's portfolio will be gone by the end of September, and another rush after the October half term will cut availability to 10 per cent.

Last minute Look out for new properties: last month, for example, the West Country specialist, Helpful Holidays (01647 434063; www.helpfulholidays.com), introduced a new property, which sleeps 10 in five bedrooms, near Salcombe, Devon, for £2,444 per week.

Guests who regularly spend Christmas at the best luxury hotels are usually given automatic priority for the following year (as well as the option to book the same room), so unless you've just stayed in a particular hotel, your chance of a room is slim as the waiting list is lengthy.

For hotels on popular islands, you should book between January and March to get your first choice of arrival date, room type and flight times.

Christmas availability for villas can be tight because this is the time that many owners use their properties. And, as with hotels on Barbados and Antigua, villas are often held until Easter for return clients, who are given first refusal. However, this system doesn't operate for villas on St Lucia, Jamaica or Tobago, so the choice is far greater.

That said, by Easter most of the key properties have gone, and operators say that bookings continue to come in at a steady pace throughout the year (with a lull from July to September).

Last minuteAs late as the end of November last year, Kuoni (01306 747001; www.kuoni.co.uk) and ITC Classics (01244 355300; www.itcclassics.co.uk) were able to offer Christmas packages to hotels such as the Blue Waters and Carlisle Bay in Antigua, the Jamaica Inn in Jamaica, and the Hilton on the south coast of Barbados at rates of around £3,500 per person.

You won't need to make a decision for a couple of months yet since bookings for most hotels are generally not accepted until the preceding July or August. And there is plenty of room choice up until November.

For smaller, mid-range hotels, the story is similar. Tom Coke, the owner of The Victoria, a 10-bedroom, four-lodge hotel on the north Norfolk coast, says he expects "a steady trickle of bookings throughout the summer with a handful of rooms left in September and nothing by mid-October - though late cancellations do come up occasionally".

Last minute Large hotels with plenty of rooms often have late availability, and you may secure a bargain if you leave it late. Alternatively, you are bound to find options across the Channel. The short-break specialist Inntravel (01653 617722; www.inntravel.co.uk) says it can always offer Christmas breaks at gastronomic hotels in northern France, but rooms are less easy to find over New Year.

One of the largest operators, Thomson (0870 606 1470; www.thomson-ski.co.uk), has been selling ski holidays for next Christmas since mid-November and says bookings are usually steady until the end of February, with many skiers putting down a deposit for the accommodation they booked the previous year.

Bookings start to dwindle by March, but operators say they expect about a third of properties to be booked by this stage, especially those that offer doorstep skiing, decent child facilities and value for money with free child places.

The most-sought after accommodation tends to be medium-sized chalets sleeping up to eight, especially those with whirlpools or saunas. By September the demand builds up again, with only 10 per cent of properties left by the end of November.

Last minuteExpect availability in less popular resorts in Andorra, Slovenia and Italy. Hotel accommodation will start to become scarce but there should still be apartments to rent. Your chances of securing a chalet in a French resort will be very low, and if you do find one, it will probably be in a poor location.

Christmas is a peak time for safaris in East Africa; the weather is dry and you can watch the zebra and wildebeest migrations in Tanzania. It's also a popular period for families wanting to combine a safari in Kenya with a beach holiday.

To secure a top-notch safari lodge, you need to act quickly: Beho Beho on the Tanzanian Selous Game Reserve, Ndutu Lodge in the Serengeti and Robins House in South Luangwa, Zambia, are some of the most sought-after for Christmas bookings; other game lodges also fill up in the first half of the year.

The tour operator Audley Travel (01869 276250 www.audleytravel.com) estimates that by July only 10 per cent of its safari programme will remain on sale. Rainbow Tours (020 7226 1004; www.rainbow.co.uk) says its best places have gone by early summer.

Martin Randall (020 8742 3355; www.martinrandall.com), the cultural tour specialist, hopes to launch its Christmas programme by the end of May and expects tours that focus on art and music to sell quickest. Last year, Art on the Côte d'Azur and Florence sold out within a month of the brochure's publication, and by the end of September, Venice and Opera in Prague were also full up.

Last minute You may find space on cultural tours to less popular destinations such as Krakow, Luxor, Crete and even Rome, with bookings available until the week of departure.